Farewell, Tajikistan

July 14, 2012

I realized as I sat at the bachelorette party for my former student, Dilbar, that I had just taken the last shared taxi ride in Dushanbe with another very immature driver who insisted on passing every other vehicle so he could grab whatever fares were waiting by the curb. This was also the last event I’d attend  where  women looked like proud peacocks in their multicolored velvet dresses worn in spite of the oppressive 97 degree weather. In addition, it’d be the last meal where the table would be laden with food most guests would not even touch, and where courses after courses would be served so they could be barely sampled or left untouched.

I hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to most of the people I had worked or socialized with as most of them had left the country while I was at the summer camps in either Istaravshan or Khorog. The staff at the PedInst had always ignored me or simply didn’t even know I existed, so there was no loss there. I told Pariso through Facebook of my imminent departure and she wished me good luck. There was no love lost there, either.

I was too tired and frazzled to even think about what things I might eventually miss about the country and its people. It would definitely not be the bland food except, of course, for the flat bread I could eat all day especially when it had been served freshly baked. I had thought that if I had decided to fly straight to the United States, I’d have brought a suitcase full of it to freeze for the rest of the year. I will miss Eraj, my student from PedInst, who became an indispensable interpreter and go-in-between for all my problems and whose infectious smile I really treasured.

I will miss the music from Khulob with its throbbing drum beat so reminiscent of Africa and so similar to our Dominican merengue music that I could dance to it all day to the amazement of the local people.

Most of all, I will miss all the strangers who smiled at me so openly whenever they encountered this dark woman with curly hair who had managed to survive in their country for ten months in spite of not learning the language, and who insisted on teaching English to anyone who was willing to learn it. I will miss their curiosity about me and the United States, all the questions they asked and above all, their generosity of spirit for being willing to share the little bit they had with someone who already possessed too much in terms of material wealth.